Spyro Gyra is an unlikely story of a group with humble beginnings in Buffalo, NY that has continued to reach an international audience for more than 40 years, resulting in sales in excess of 10 million albums and having played more than 5,000 shows on five continents. They have accomplished this due to a forward-looking approach combined with the work ethic of an underdog, always challenging themselves to do something new while never resting on past success. It has proven to be a recipe for longevity for this jazz group while music has gone in and out of styles in ever shorter cycles.
Spyro Gyra are contemporary jazz icons who observed their 40th year as a band in 2014 with shows that showcased their breakthrough “Morning Dance” album. After that year of looking back, they decided to spend 2015 concentrating on their more recent material, playing many songs from their post-2000 releases. The audience reaction was so positive to their recent material that bandleader Jay Beckenstein decided that their albums from that period deserved a little more focus. So, in order to spotlight this innovative and productive period, Spyro Gyra released “The Best Of The Heads Up Years” in Spring 2016.
“My hope is that our music has the same effect on the audience that it does on me,” says Beckenstein. “I’ve always felt that music, and particularly instrumental music, has this non-literal quality that lets people travel to a place where there are no words. Whether it’s touching their emotions or connecting them to something that reminds them of something much bigger than themselves, there’s this beauty in music that’s not connected to sentences. It’s very transportive. I would hope that when people hear our music or come to see us, they’re able to share that with us.”
$55 advance/ $60 at the door